This relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to electronic devices with components that generate heat.
Electronic devices often include components that generate heat. For example, a display may have a backlight unit that provides backlight illumination. The backlight unit may have a light guide plate that distributes backlight from a row of light-emitting diodes. The light-emitting diodes and other electrical components in a device may generate waste heat. Heat can be dissipated through portions of a device housing, such as metal housing structures. If care is not taken, however, hotspots can develop due to concentrations of heat-producing components. To minimize the formation of thermal hotspots when the light-emitting diodes in a backlight unit are used, control circuitry may restrict the amount of light produced by the light-emitting diodes whenever the temperature rise associated with use of the light-emitting diodes has become too large. This can result in undesirably dim output levels from the backlight unit, making images on the display difficult to view in bright ambient lighting conditions.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved arrangements for managing heat in electronic devices such as devices with displays.